East Pikeland residents invited to attend citizen's police academy

East Pikeland Police Department will be holding a Citizen’s Police Academy on Saturday, April 13. It will be held at the East Pikeland Township building from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.

“We get a lot of questions from people on the street of how we do things,” said Officer Thomas Douglas, a member of the department. “We just thought we would open it up and show people, and give people a better understanding of what it’s like to be a police officer in East Pikeland Township. People are going to walk away from this and have a better understanding of what we do.”

Throughout the day, citizens will be able to see first hand many different types of police demonstrations. Presentations will include showing the public certain types of evidence the department regularly deals with, such as different kinds of drugs and drug paraphernalia.

Douglas said all of the officers will be there that day helping out.

“There will be a mock crime scene in the station,” said Douglas. “We’ll show people what we’d get, what we would look for and who we’d want to talk to.”

In-car camera videos will also be shown.

“We’re going to show incidents that have happened in East Pikeland that our officers have dealt with,” said Douglas.

In front of the police station, officers will be setting up a traffic incident demonstration and will show people how they clock cars for speed and how that process works.

“It’s what we do. It’s a smattering of everything,” Douglas said.

Members of the community can sign up by submitting an application form that can be found on the East Pikeland police department’s website.

Anyone can sign up. Juveniles must be accompanied by a parent or guardian.